Obama Should End Affirmative Action

[JW Frogen]

Obama has stated that his election is proof Martin Luther King Jr’s dream has been achieved, the US is now a place where a person is judged by the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin.

OK, fair enough.

Mr Prez make one of your first acts a courageous one, end the caste system that is Affirmative Action. The program is an insult to African Americans as it states they do not have the ability to make it without government preference.

You have proved otherwise President Obama, now end this disgraceful, racist program.

Will he?

I think I would bet on him wearing a stove pipe hat and faux Lincoln beard at his inauguration first.

[White Indigene]

What about a Coconut Hard Hat,

grass skirt, and a bowl of dirt. Will they be at the Ritual?

[JW Frogen]

What about a Coconut Hard Hat,

grass skirt, and a bowl of dirt. Will they be at the Ritual?

Bartender!

I will have what he is having.

[Ethnic]

Affirmative action has done little to boost black participation in the workforce and in colleges. Most blacks in top jobs and schools are there simply because they were the best candidates for the vacancies and were judged on their hard work and determination. I'm with Larry Elder on this one - affirmative action is another legacy of white guilt.

[boxy]

Affirmative action has done little to boost black participation in the workforce and in colleges. Most blacks in top jobs and schools are there simply because they were the best candidates for the vacancies and were judged on their hard work and determination. I'm with Larry Elder on this one - affirmative action is another legacy of white guilt.

So is it a white elephant, doing nothing but appeasing... or does it actually promote unworthy african americans at the expense of middle class white americans?

[JW Frogen]

The real question here Boxy is why should Affirmative Action exist at all now that Obama is the President?

[boxy]

The American public didn't have much of a choice though... either a woman, a retard, or an articulate black man

[JW Frogen]

I am suprised they did not try to come as close as they could at combining all three, say Oprah?

[mantra.]

Mr Prez make one of your first acts a courageous one, end the caste system that is Affirmative Action. The program is an insult to African Americans as it states they do not have the ability to make it without government preference.

You have proved otherwise President Obama, now end this disgraceful, racist program.

Will he?

This is prevalent in most predominantly caucasian countries, although it is obviously worse in the US. But the elite rely on those of a different caste or class to perform the menial lower paid work. Nothing is going to change any time soon. Obama has already stated that the tax system will remain as it is - benefitting those on the highest incomes, because while we have this sub-prime crisis - he believes that we need the wealthy to employ the impoverished.

And to think Howard was following this pattern of turning Australia into a caste/class society made up of the haves and have not's. If he had managed to get re-elected for another term - we would become exactly the same as the US.

Obama might do something about this "caste" system further down the track - but it will be years before the US emerges again as a powerful economy and until that occurs, it needs its society to have 40 million without health cover and destitute so they have no alternative but to work for $2 an hour for the very wealthy. While the poor are suppressed and oppressed, the elite can thrive with minimal discomfort.

Call it what you want…a caste system, apartheid, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat…there is and has been a growing gap between the haves and have-nots that has been ignored for far too long. Why is it ignored? Because America, despite all our checks and balances, our talk of meritocracy, our belief in the “common good,” our calls for personal freedom and responsibility, is a class society. In a class society, the ruling class, no matter it’s good intentions in providing for the good of all will not...cannot…give up its power.

At one time, education was our great equalizer. Children got an equal chance to rise based solely on their own potential, regardless of their family background. But today, education is deepening the economic divide.

Rising costs at public and private universities are outpacing student aid. Meanwhile federal tax breaks for college actually help wealthy students more than poor ones. It turns out that families with incomes of at least $92,000 get more tax breaks for college than families making less than a third of that. Tax breaks simply don't help the poor the way they do the rich. They often don't make enough to qualify. And studies show that financial aid for college goes increasingly to wealthier students. That doesn't bother institutions of higher learning. In fact, they're skewing their dollars towards helping affluent children on purpose. They want to show that they've bet on horses that win instead of helping people equally at the starting gate. This way, the gap between the educated haves and have-nots keeps growing.

Since 1980, the earnings gap between college entrants and high school graduates more than doubled. Enrollment rates of the rich at four-year colleges, the ticket to higher pay, increased by 20 percent in the last decade. But poor students' enrollments are actually falling. Any increase in postsecondary education among the poor has been mostly at two-year colleges.

[Jovial Monk]

I imagine affirmative action might have been instituted to counteract the huge fucking discrimination against blacks that there used to be which meant higher education for blacks might have been beyond their reach. The civil disobedience against segregation were made in the 60s, in my lifetime!

Sorry, just pissed off a bit by people assuming there were never any obstacles put in the way of black people in the US (or here.)